Under the President's
leadership, and together with the State Department and DHS, the
Department of Justice stands ready to take the fight to the Mexican drug
cartels.

We're all concerned about
the increased levels of violence in Mexico, and we very much admire the
courage and resolution of our Mexican counterparts who are bravely
confronting these cartels in their own backyard. And we'll resolve to do
everything we can to work together with them to destroy these criminal
organizations.

For more than a quarter
century, U.S. law enforcement agencies have recognized that the best way
to fight the most sophisticated criminal enterprises is through
intelligence-based investigations to target the greatest threats. Under
the leadership of the Justice Department, the command and control of La
Cosa Nostra, which was once the most powerful organized-crime group
operating in the United States, has been effectively dismantled, with
many of its most senior leaders behind bars. Built on this same
approach, and together with our Mexican counterparts, the Department's
Mexican cartel strategy confronts those cartels as criminal
organizations rather than simply responding to individual acts of
violence.

That strategy is carried out
by prosecutor-led, intelligence-based task forces that bring together
all DOJ and DHS and other relevant law enforcement agencies to disrupt
and dismantle the drug cartels through investigation, prosecution,
extradition of their leaders, and the seizure and forfeiture of their
assets.

As we've found with other
large criminal groups, if you take their money and lock up their
leaders, you can loosen their grips on the vast organizations that are
used to carry out their criminal activities. Attorney General Holder and
I are committed to taking advantage of all Department resources and
those of associated agencies to target the Mexican cartels. We will
investigate and prosecute the criminals who smuggle drugs into the
United States and distribute and sell them in our cities and towns. We
will also investigate and prosecute those who smuggle guns, bulk cash
and contraband from the United States to Mexico.

Just last month, the
Attorney General announced the arrest of more than 750 individuals on
narcotics-related charges under Operation Accelerator, a multi-agency,
multinational effort that targeted the Mexican drug-trafficking
organization known as the Sinaloa cartel. Through Operation Accelerator,
prosecutors and federal law enforcement agencies, led by DEA, delivered
a significant blow to the Sinaloa cartel by seizing $59 million,
hundreds of firearms, and more than 12,000 kilograms of cocaine and
12,000 pounds of methamphetamine.

A similarly sweeping DOJ-led
initiative against the Gulf cartel, announced in September 2008, called
Project Reckoning, produced similarly dramatic results. The President
has directed us to take action to fight these cartels. And Attorney
General Holder and I are taking several new and aggressive steps as part
of the administration's comprehensive plan.

Those steps include the
following: DOJ's Drug Enforcement Administration, which already has the
largest U.S. drug enforcement presence in Mexico, with 11 offices in
that country, is placing 16 new DEA positions in Southwest border field
operations, specifically to target Mexican trafficking and associated
violence.

The DEA is also deploying
four new mobile enforcement teams to specifically target Mexican
methamphetamine trafficking, both along the border and in U.S. cities
impacted by the cartels.

DOJ's Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is increasing its efforts by adding 37
new employees in three new offices, using $10 million in Recovery Act
funds, and redeploying 100 personnel to the Southwest border in the next
45 days to fortify its Project Gunrunner, which is aimed at disrupting
arms trafficking between the United States and Mexico.

ATF is doubling its presence
in Mexico itself, from five to nine personnel working with the Mexicans,
specifically to facilitate gun tracing activity, which targets the
illegal weapons and their sources in the United States.

DOJ's Office of Justice
Programs is investing $30 million in stimulus funding to help state and
local government and law enforcement combat narcotics activity along the
Southwest border and in high-intensity drug trafficking areas.
Additionally, the state and local law enforcement in those areas can
apply for COPS and Byrne Justice Assistance Grants, a total of $3
billion of which were provided in the stimulus package.

And the FBI is stepping up
its efforts in the region by creating a Southwest intelligence group,
focusing its activities on -- increasing its focus on public corruption,
kidnappings and extortion related to the cartels' activities.

As the Department did in
dismantling La Cosa Nostra, these new resources will build on the
framework already in place to disrupt and dismantle the Mexican drug
cartels.